Panasonic WT600 65-Inch 4K TV Preview: We Test The New Star Telly (PICTURES)

Preview: How Good Is Panasonic's 65-Inch 4K Telly?
Panasonic's Managing Director AVC Yoshiyuki Miyabe (l) with the new TV
Panasonic's Managing Director AVC Yoshiyuki Miyabe (l) with the new TV
Getty

Panasonic's 65-inch 4K TV makes us feel really, really bad for anyone who owns a 4K TV already.

Because as the world's first set with an HDMI 2.0 input, and thus the first one capable of consistent real-world 60 FPS performance from gaming PCs and Blu-Ray players, it's a big jump forward.

In fact, viewed side-by-side with a 30FPS 4K video - and with all due hesitancy about in-booth demonstrations and their resemblance - or not - to real-world performance in mind - it's almost funny how much better the new standard is.

Funny, that is, if you haven't already paid upwards of £5,000 for a 4K set. The football match example on show at IFA - 60 FPS on the left, 30 FPS on the right - is a perfect illustration of why it makes such a difference. The action on the former flows with an amazingly natural range of motion. Flags flutter realistically in the wind. Balls soar across the sky with no hint of ghosting, stuttering motion or weird jumpiness. It looks real. The 30FPS version looks like it's broken in comparison.

All that said, this set is clearly still one for enthusiasts, the extremely rich or the insane.

At around £5,500 for the set it would be a bold, arguably bizarre decision to actually buy one. Indeed, as the jump from 30 FPS to 60 FPS shows, 4K is not a mature technology, and it will be two years at least before it's refined enough for most people to switch.

If you're really into the idea of 60 FPS PC gaming on a 4K TV however - or you're just really keen to keep up with the equally tech-obsessed Joneses, it's a great telly. And it really is future-proof. Alongside HDMI 2.0 it has a DisplayPort 1.2a, making PC connections - and gaming - easy. It can play 4K from a USB stick or the web, and is Europe's first set with a THK 4K certification.

That said, you'll probably need another 4K telly to go alongside it, running a video at 30FPS, so you can prove how much better your new one really is over the last generation.

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